Red Eclipse: A Lightweight, Open-source, Highly-engaging FPS

Red Eclipse ranks among my top five FPS games of all time, which is surprising given how light-weight and feature-less it is when compared to AAA titles (and even other more well-known indie titles). It is open-source and built on top of the Cube Engine 2. It is available for BSD, Linux, Mac, and Windows.

The game has several scenarios, from capture-the-flag, bomber-ball, last-man-standing, general team vs. team, and a myriad of others. Within these scenarios one can also enable or disable several options, such as jet packs, melee weapons only, vampire (gain life when you attack another player), bombs only, and a great deal more. There is also a wide variety of weapons, though keeping with the tone of an FPS the vast majority of these are guns. Maps are in abundance, with a handful being the most popular (such as Ghost and Deli). To keep teams even, bots are usually included to fill gaps (though this can be disabled).

This sounds like most FPS games. What, then, makes Red Eclipse different? Two aspects stand out for me: its simplicity and parkour. The game does not have heavy graphics, complicated missions, or a steep learning curve. One can figure everything out in less than 20 minutes with one or two bot matches. This also allows the game to run smoothly even on lower-end machines. The parkour aspect is what hooked me, however. Players can jump on walls, do flying kicks, slide landings, and escape from what would be certain death in a normal FPS. This is what keeps me coming back. While I have not played every FPS there is, I will say that this is the only one I have found that has both of these aspects (though if there are others, please let me know in the comments!).

I first found Red Eclipse on Desura back around 2012, before Steam came out for Linux (the newest version is not available on Desura; click here for an explanation, that's not even getting into the fact that Desura is basically dead and Bankrupt now), and found the community another positive aspect of the game (though there is the occasional person who likes to trash talk). Though there are not always many people playing online, a match with even just two or three others is very enjoyable, and helps one to hone those necessary skills for bigger matches.

Click here to go to the homepage of Red Eclipse and join the fun! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.